AC21 - F4 - Serving Young Children of Veterans: A Panel Discussion on the Report by the NCTSN-VA Subcommittee

Julia Yeary, ACSW, LCSW, IMH-E, is the Director of Military Family Projects at ZERO TO THREE. In her role, Julia leads work to address the unique needs of military and veteran families for ZERO TO THREE. She works to establish stronger support for families and their very young children experiencing stress and trauma. Julia provides training and consultation for communities throughout the country to promote trauma-informed care and infant mental health and has facilitated numerous webinars for multi-disciplinary professionals. She also works extensively to help professionals in supporting military-connected parents as they deal with the multiple anticipated stressors associated with military life. Julia has authored several articles including When a Parent is Away: Promoting Strong Parent-Child Connections During Parental Absence (ZERO TO THREE Journal. April 2012), the e-book, A Professional's Guide to Creating Activities for Strengthening Parent-Child Connections, and co-authored the psycho-educational parenting curriculum for Veterans, Baby Brigade. Julia served as the project manager in the development of the mobile app for military-connected families, Babies on the Homefront. Julia received her Masters in Social Work in 1980 from the University of Hawaii. She is a graduate fellow of the Infant, Early Childhood, and Family Mental Health Capstone Certificate Program, University of Wisconsin, and is rostered as a Trauma-Informed Child-Parent Psychotherapy provider.

Mayer Bellehsen, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist licensed since 2011. Dr. Bellehsen is the Director of the Unified Behavioral Health Center for Military Veterans and their Families: Northwell Health, which is a unique public-private partnership between Northwell and the Northport VA to expand access to behavioral healthcare for Veteran families through co-location and coordination of care. Dr. Bellehsen is also a co-developer of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) funded site, the Center for Supporting Trauma Recovery in Youth with Developmental Disabilities at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. In this role he co-leads an NCTSN-VA Subcommittee that addresses the impact of trauma and behavioral health challenges on children of Veterans and Veteran families focuses on addressing the impact of trauma and behavioral health challenges on children and families of Veterans. Most recently, Dr. Bellehsen assumed the role of Director of the Center for Traumatic Stress, Resilience and Recovery (CTSRR), which is focused on providing resiliency services and trauma services for community members impacted by trauma and for healthcare workers responding to COVID-19, including through the application of the peer support model called Stress First Aid.

Dr. Shelley R. Fenstermacher is a licensed clinical psychologist who received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Southern California. She joined the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System in 2009 and her primary focus is on parenting and family issues. Dr. Fenstermacher currently works with VA Family Services and Women's Mental Health to develop products and implement training programs to support the functioning of Veterans as parents. National family services initiatives include the creation of a joint DoD-VA online parenting course and mobile application for Veterans and Service Members. Dr. Fenstermacher also co-leads the VA-National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Subcommittee that addresses the impact of trauma and behavioral health challenges on children of Veterans and Veteran families.

Dr. Gregory Leskin is licensed clinical psychologist and serves as Director for Military and Veteran Families Program at the UCLA/Duke University's National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. In this capacity, Dr. Leskin directs the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Military and Veteran Families Program to provide education, training, and resources on military culture, screening, assessment, and evidence-based interventions to the military, the VA, and community-based behavioral health providers throughout the United States. Dr. Leskin is the principle program developer and Director for the NCTSN/DoD Academy on Child Trauma, an online training and social media platform developed to train DoD Family Advocacy Program staff clinical skills related to child trauma and behavioral health prevention for military families and children. Previously, Dr. Leskin has worked as a Clinical Researcher and Director of Clinical Training at the National Center for PTSD, Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. He completed a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) post-doctoral fellowship at the National Center for PTSD at the Boston VA Medical Center.